Day 4... Doorways

“In the universe, there are things that are known,
and things that are unknown,
and in between,
there are DOORS”

— William Blake

Doors that are welcoming…

simple doors just off a busy street…

doors with character and options…

protected doorways…

doors so faded they almost seem forgotten…

tricky doors that go nowhere…

doors filled with mystery…

a passageway to the unknown…

“Take your time. I’ll be here when you are ready” says the door with a bench

An open door…

just for you

welcome.

Liminal (limen; latin) meaning threshold.

Doorways are thresholds from one place to another. Crossing over those thresholds… we do this everyday without much regard. Yet maybe this simple action provides an opportunity to ponder peace.

Richard Rohr wrote: “Liminal space is an inner state and sometimes an outer situation when we can begin to think and act in new ways… we usually enter liminal space when our former way of being is challenged or changed.”

The images of the doors shows us that our thresholds, or liminal space comes in many shapes and sizes.

So many possibilities…

I discovered this poem titled “The inherent uncertainty of transition” by Felicia Murrell last spring and have revisited it often as a reminder of how to embrace liminal space. To find ease on the threshold…

“In the radiance of dark, there is a process:
the unfolding of mystery,
things words cannot articulate,
a threshold to freedom the mind cannot comprehend.
But the body feels,
the heart knows:
this is liminality.
The threshold of transition,
from death to life, from evening to morn,
from gestation to giving birth
the unknown is a part of it all.”

— Felicia Murrell

When I went searching through my photos for that one picture I remembered taking of a red door, I was delighted to find so many photos of doors, particularly red ones.

For years, I’ve felt I was “stuck” on a metaphorical threshold… waiting, inpatiently at best, desperate at my worst, for the next “move” to come along. When I learned about liminal space, my attitude began to shift into a place of acceptance with the unknowing.

These images of doorways are a reminder to me that the pathway of peace is a process… it’s not a destination. One door opens, a threshold crossed, moves me into a space to encounter new doors.

Doorways of peace…

Peace nugget #4

Which doorway of peace speaks to you and why?

Other

Several people have asked if there is a way to post photos in the comments. I will check into this yet my initial response is “I don’t think so.” I am contemplating moving to a different platform in the new year that allows for more interaction between all of you. More details on this later.

Day 3... Colo(u)r of peace

When you think of peace… what color comes to mind?

What color is joy?

respect?

dignity?

trust?

reciprocity?

community?

contentedness?

grounded?

conviviality?

I love color… the colors of the natural world. The color of place. And when I think about the places that are dear to me… it’s in color.

“Color is the first principle of place” ~Nan Shepherd

Whether it be the purple of springtime…

the blue-greens of a beach far, far, away from “here”…

a pop of red and flash in the last hurrah of the fall…

or the crispness of winter set against a brilliant sky.

all colors of peace…

A wall of wool at Brooklyn General Store. Jamiesons Spindrift (Shetland yarn)

One of my top reasons I knit is for the color…I choose yarn that represents the landscape…

Knitting is a story… not one word at a time but a stitch at a time. A story about place, or love, or compassion.

Peace nugget #3

Today is art day! I have long had the desire to paint. It’s one of those persistent dreams… learn to paint. I’ve taken workshops and set “goals” only to have all of it fizzle away. It’s not that I don’t like it it’s just that I have other activities that always come first… knitting, reading, writing…

Years ago, I went on a long bike ride. Before cell phones (maybe even before the internet)… by myself for 2 weeks along the Washington and Oregon coast camping all the way. I wanted a way to creatively express the beauty that was everywhere. In my paniers, I’d packed a few I colored pencils and I began making color swatches…

the bursting purple of the blackberries alongside the road… a scribble of purple

the depths of richness of the Pacific Ocean… a scribble of blue-green

In the photo above, I made a “mood” panel. I swatched five colors of how I felt that day and made little notes.

Let’s make a peace panel…

five colors that represent peace …

the possibilities are limitless.

You don’t need many supplies… crayons, colored pencils, watercolor pencils (my favorite), paper, etc.

And if you don’t have those supplies, get creative. Maybe you want to make some peace panels with fabric scraps, or yarn left-overs…

Leave a comment… what color is peace to you and why?

Other…

Thank you for all your comments about the birds. Truly inspiring. I love reading how birds have made an impact on your lives.

If you want to read more on color and knitting, check out the work of Kate Davies and Felicity Ford (scroll down to read her blog posts about a color project throughout Advent).

My friend Dotty from The Net Loft offers lots of online watercolor workshops at no cost.

Day 2... for the Birds

I never gave much thought to birds as there weren’t that many where I grew up in Colorado. I can recall hawks and magpies… the first I really like, the others I do not.

Then, in Montana, there were a few more types of birds including hawks and magpies. Canada geese flew through in the fall. Plus some other brown birds… There were too many magpies. Did I mention, I do not care for those birds.

And then, I moved to Iowa… bald eagles, lots of hawks, owls, warblers, cardinals, starlings, house finches, trumpter swans and loads of Canada geese in the winter, some migrating pelicans, multiple types of woodpeckers, orioles in June… the list goes.

There are no magpies.

But there are redwing blackbirds, cowbirds, and bluejays.

I do not care for these birds. They dive bomb me on my walks (redwing blackbirds), poach the nests of other birds (cowbirds), and frighten the other birds away from the feeder (bluejays). How dare they?

So, what do these all these birds have to do with peace?

First, it’s easy to see the beauty… from the goldfinches, warblers, cardinals, woodpeckers, hawks, owls, and bald eagles. All exquisite.

Choosing peace is easy when it’s pretty…

The birds have also shown me that peace cannot be defined by beauty alone… Why don’t I like those other birds? They certainly bother me by interrupting my peaceful “walk through nature,” and they are mean to other birds. What’s there to like? Why are those birds the way they are? There are many explanations for their behavior as a result of their own environment.

Peace needs to be considered from multiple perspectives

Let’s dig a little deeper using this analogy of birds and peace… why were there no birds in my hometown of Colorado or Montana? I honestly never noticed the lack of birds in those places until I moved to Iowa where they are abundant.

Perhaps there are no birds in the mountains of the western US

or maybe, I was not paying attention.

I was focused on my own life. I was oblivious to anything outside of “my” world.

Peace needs us to be aware of our surroundings…

of the easy and the challenging

and to notsimply turn away from what we “do not like.”

My thoughts on birds as metaphors of peace are extensive. More than what we can address here today. Before I go, I want to share one other lesson learned from the birds. This one is from a recent trip to Shetland (July 2023).

I have long wanted to see the puffins… those cute little birds who spend approximately 8 months of the year at sea and then make their way to land in the summer to mate, watch over the eggs, and then a short stint with puffling rearing before all leave and head back to sea. They are the cutest!

Puffin at Sumbrugh Head, Shetland, UK

I’d been so captivated by images of puffins prior to my trip, I even planned out the colors for a sweater (aka jumper) inspired by the puffins.

I loved knitting this yoke as each combination of colors represented the puffins… the white, black, and orange of their bodies, the orange and pink duo reminded me of their feet standing in the blooming sea pinks, the green and the black reflective of their deep dives into the water for the “silvers” (small fish). That month in Shetland, I knit this yoke, each stitch symbolizing the interaction of the puffins with their environment.

While it was amazing to finally see them… it was a different bird that seemed to really speak to me. Also a black and white bird with orange accents called the oystercatcher. The puffin jumper became a story about the puffins and the oystercatchers.

Photo of artwork by Linda Richardson

And then I began seeing other birds… curlews, arctic terns, razorbacks, comorants, great skuas, wrens, fulmars… a whole new world of birds, one that I never could have imagined. The birds taught me the need to stay open to possibilities and that life isn’t about a grand plan…

I went to see the puffins yet learned to widen my gaze… to the land, sea, and sky.

The potential for peace is everywhere…

it’s not defined by beauty,

it’s easy and challenging,

exists in the calm as well as the storm,

and needs us to be open to possibility and alternative perspectives.

Peace nugget #2

Take some time today to watch some birds… up in the sky, in the trees, at a bird feeder, along a river, at the lake, or seaside. Allow yourself some slow time to watch.

Prompt: How might birds be teaching you something about peace?

Other:

Thank you so much for all your amazing comments yesterday. I read every single one of them … all 96 of them so far! This platform makes it challenging for me to comment yet please know that I am reading and smiling. This is a space of hope. Thank you.

Leave a comment every day and I’ll send you a little something at the end of our 21 day adventure.

Pattern: Roost pullover by Savory Knitting

Yarn: Jamieson’s and Smith 2-ply jumper weight

Day 1... peace in Action

And so we begin…

Prairie Horizons Farm, Minnesota

For those of you who are new or just want a little reminder of how Project Peace came to be, I thought it might be nice to take a very quick trip down memory lane.

Project Peace was an idea that surfaced during a coffee date in the fall of 2015 with a dear friend… we were chatting, or most likely I was chatting and she was listening, when I stated outloud, “what if I were to create a knitting pattern that was about peace and people all over the world were knnitting it at the same time, that would be my version of world peace.” We chuckled at the silly idea.

But that little idea persisted... a whisper of an idea until it was a full on roar.

So, I wrote a pattern and published it on Ravelry just days after the US Presidential election… I’d hoped that 100 people would take up the offer to join me for 21 days in that month of December 2016. They say timing is everything and it was a very unsettling time for many people … over 20,000 people downloaded that pattern with 1000s joining from around the world on the blog for the 21 days.

Was it world peace? Now I suppose that depends on your definition… and that becomes a very important part of this conversation.

And then we just kept going… for 5 years, gathering each December in this little corner of the internet, knitting and sharing ideas of peace.

The enthusiasm and receptivity for talking about peace, knitting for peace, finding creative ways to name and create peace in our days has been incredible. We really do need to have more of these conversations.

I can also add that the resistance to these conversations is real. I’ve encountered push-back in multiple places out in the “world,” the specifics not needed… yet my take-aways have strengthened my resolve to continue to talk about peace in creative and innovative ways.

Here we are on this first morning of December in 2023 and there’s a lot to process if you think about all that has happened around the globe since that first morning of December 2016. Conflict, violence, oppression, wars, genocide, hunger, famine, pandemic, illness, the list goes on and some of it keeps repeating. It’s horrific, daunting, and can be overwhelming if one is inclined to want to put an end to this way of being.

“Ours is not the task of fixing the world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach...”

— Clarissa Pinkola Estes

We must stretch ourselves to mend what is within our reach. What is within your reach? Substituting “create peace” for the word “mend” is thought-provoking. We must create peace for the part of the world that is within our reach.

What does peace mean?

To you?

What does it look like to put peace in action?

What does it mean to move this simple 5 letter word from a feeling to

actionable?

Take a moment.

Close your eyes.

What does peace look like?

What does peace sound like?

What does peace feel like?

In the past year, I learned to be intentional with defining peace. I had to. You see, this simple little word means so many different things to people. And if you want to have an effective conversation about peace … you better be clear about what peace means. Otherwise, people will use their definition and I’ve found you might not be on the same page.

To me, peace is relationships with

self

others

and the Earth.

This is my condensed definition from the Earth Charter.

Peace nugget #1

Today, I leave you with two suggestions.

1. Make space in your day to be intentional about pausing. You pick the amount of time… and maybe you want to start small and increase over the next 21 days. Time to allow stillness to be part of your day…. maybe it’s time seated in a chair, feet firmly planted on the ground with your eyes closed. Or maybe it’s wrapping your hands around your cup of tea or coffee, looking outside, and watching the trees, birds, or ocean depending on your landscape. This is your time to go slow.

2. Grab a piece of paper (or a notebook/journal), set a timer and write for 5 minutes without stopping to the following prompt:

   What is peace in action?

   Other things:

   Leave a comment about what peace means to you… in a way that is actionable. For example, using my definition that focuses on relationships, I can hone in relationships that need mending, nurturing, enrichment… whether it’s with myself, others, or the Earth.

   As a reminder, leave a comment every day and I’ll send you a little something at the end of Project Peace. Plus, I’ll do a random drawing for some yarn to use in a shawl.

   peace with each stitch and step

   Christina xx